The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea plant, botanically known as Hydrangea involucrata and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Wim Rutten’.
The new Hydrangea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Leende, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to develop strong and vigorous Hydrangea plants with attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Hydrangea plant originated from a cross-pollination in 2000 of two unnamed seedling selections of Hydrangea involucrata, not patented. The new Hydrangea plant was discovered and selected in 2002 as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Leende, The Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by softwood cuttings in Leende, The Netherlands since 2003 has shown that the unique features of this new Hydrangea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.